354 HUNTING PRELIMINARIES. 



closing earths in the morning be omitted, a dog fox may get 

 into an earth in front of the hounds, in which case no attempt 

 should be made to put in a terrier, who might kill some if 

 not all of the cubs, supposing they were present. If possible, 

 a covert holding a heavy or suckling vixen should not be 

 drawn. 



Vixens in most cases run shorter than their male com- 

 panions ; because they do not travel in search of lovers, and 

 consequently they do not know the country so well ; but 

 occasionally they give long runs. For instance, the bob- 

 tailed fox which was found at Walton Thorns, and was killed 

 outside Old Hills, after passing within a field of Cossington 

 Gorse (an eight mile point and a twelve mile run in 52 

 minutes), was a vixen that had lost her cubs. Foxes are 

 more or less nocturnal animals, as we may see by an 

 examination of their eyes, the pupils of which contract in 

 a manner somewhat similar to those of a cat, when the 

 nerves of the eyes are stimulated by light. 



The nature of a country has a great deal to say to the 

 merits of its foxes from a hunting point of view. When they 

 live in places which afford them plenty of food and shelter, 

 like woodlands well furnished with ground game, they adopt 

 a stay-at-home policy, and give no long runs ; because they are 

 out of mental and physical condition, and do not know the lie 

 of the land. Even in a good country, turned down foxes do 

 not acquire a knowledge of it, until they have gone through 

 a season of "travelling," which is the term applied to the 

 long excursions which a fox makes to visit a vixen. A 

 travelling fox is the one for a " point," especially when he is a 

 long distance from home. "Turned down" cubs are those 

 which are taken from their home, to a strange place, and left 

 to their own devices to become naturalised subjects. 



It appears that nowadays, foxes in the Midlands run 

 shorter than formerly, chiefly no doubt on account of their 



